Criminal Lovers

Criminal Lovers
Criminal Lovers
Directed by	François Ozon
Written by	François Ozon
Produced by	Olivier Delbosc; Marc Missonnier
Cinematography	Pierre Stoeber
Edited by	Claudine Bouché; Dominique Petrot
Music by	Philippe Rombi
Release date	1999;
Running time	96 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Criminal Lovers (French title: Les Amants criminels) is a 1999 psychological thriller and horror film by French director François Ozon.^[1] In fact, it is modern retelling of Hansel and Gretel.

Plot[]

High school student Alice convinces her boyfriend and lover, Luc, to murder their classmate Saïd, whom she was having an affair with, and whom she claims raped her. When they dispose of his body in the woods late one night, the couple get lost on their way back to their car and are taken in by a mysterious old man and hermit.^[2] However, matters take a bizarre twist when the stranger locks the young lovers in his cellar along with the dead body of Saïd and reveals that he plans to eat them. The stranger harnesses Luc and convinces for sex. He finally gives Luc an option to survive with his girlfriend (Alice), Luc finally shares bed with stranger and gets away from the forest without killing the hermit.

When the couple comes out of forest they find the police near their car and the police learn about their murder and the strange hermit also gets arrested, apparently after Saïd's body is found. Luc gets arrested as he gets caught in a bear trap, and Alice tries to run away but is eventually caught and killed by the police. In the final sequence the apprehended Luc attempts to stop the police who are beating the forester up, but in vain. In despair and anguish, Luc is carried to the city in the police car, ending the film.

Cast[]

Natacha Régnier as Alice
Salim Kechiouche as Saïd
Miki Manojlović as mysterious old man
Jérémie Renier as Luc
Yasmine Belmadi as Karim
Bernard Maume as professor
Jean-Louis Debard as night guard
Catherine Vierne as jewelry saleswoman
Marielle Coubaillon as hostess at the supernarket
Olivier Papot as police officer
Gil de Murger as GIGN officer
Agnès Accaria
Ranzi Adjeri
Myriam Aubert
Anne-Laure Borel
Aurélien Boyer
Jean-Christophe Bozzo
Sébastien Brolis
Laurent Brunéo
Lionel Cathelin
Emmanuelle Chazot
Sylvie Colas
Fernand Da Silva
Jerôme Dalle
Guillaume Deschanel
Patrice Desolière
Didier Doignon
Philippe Drumelle
Guy Durand
Aurélie Fournet-Fayard
Guyslaine Gardès
Marion Gaumet
Elisabeth Gayton
Béatrice Guillemet
Rabah Hamdaoui
Julien Jallut
Aglaë Jonathan
Ludovic Lamadon
Aude Lapreste
Guillaume Latrasse
François Lauret
Jakie Laverdure
Séverinne Le Blanc
Thierry Lemoine
Christophe Luiz
Renaud Mallet
Julien Martres
Marie-Claire Mazzini
Renaud Morano
Alain Moresco
Cécile Paccard
Marie-Pierre Perez
Marie Petit
Jonathan Piano
Frédéric Picot
Caroline Presset
Raphaelle Rioi
Cécile Stratonovitch
Hosine Talbi
Arnaud Teissière
Brigitte, Martihino and Nicolas Albuquerque

Reception[]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 67% based on 15 critics, with an average rating of 6.1/10.^[3] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 59 out of 100 based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[4]

Neil Smith of BBC called the film "unsettling, subversive thriller that combines sadism, cannibalism, and homoeroticism to increasingly delirious effect".^[5]

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly compared it to Deliverance and Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.^[6]

Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times had criticized the film, writing that "it never develops a life of its own" because of "[its] amalgam of fairy tales, old movies and tabloid stories".^[7]